Society

Last fall, I published a New Yorker essay titled, “What Kind of Writer is ChatGPT?”. My goal for the piece was to better understand how ... Read more

Dave Winer, OG blogger, podcaster, developed first apps in many categories. Old enough to know better. It's even worse than it appears.

On Evil, Civility, and Why Some Things Cannot Be Compromised Away

A defining and underpinning characteristic of the international financial system in the 21st century is the apparent necessity of access to, usage of and infrastructure needed for sovereign debt (or comparable instruments), credit markets and capital markets more broadly. Typically, states across the globe rely on access to and usage of such markets to borrow...

We are in an era of limited wars that are motivated by political manipulation of the public appetite for violent conflict. War has become indecisive and performative.

How the Supreme Court Just Redefined Presidential Authority

On Peter Thiel's Gnostic Christianity and the Pathology of Hierarchical Thinking

Peter Thiel's Elegant Nihilism

How Conservative Legal Theory Collapsed Into Partisan Hackery

An overview of Clausewitz's thinking winds up showing how the US has ignored it, with the bad results Clausewitz predicted.

On embodiment, industrial realities, and why the center still holds

The 21st Century’s Useful Idiots of Fascism

Clarence Thomas's anti-trans concurrence is the culmination of right-wing anti-intellectualism

Colleges and universities renew Turnitin subscriptions year after year even though its flawed detectors are expensive and require students to let the company keep their papers forever.

For people with OCD, reassurance can be harmful. ChatGPT provides an infinite supply.

Republicans are proposing huge cuts to Medicaid. The impact on Americans’ health would be devastating.

American adolescents watch much more pornography than their parents know — and it’s shaping their ideas about pleasure, power and intimacy. Can they be taught to see it more critically?

Porn has long been the canary in the coal mine for other restrictions against free speech.

Americans awoke this morning to the news that the United States military had [DROPPED BOMBS AND / OR CARRIED OUT DRONE STRIKES] on [WHATEVER COUNTR...

Designers producing ethical products are criticised for their high prices, but little can be done about that without wider change, writes Smith Mordak.

Being an asshole is a choice.

WSP leverages cellphone data to predict and prevent speeding, enhancing safety on Washington's roadways.

Money's sole purpose should be to make you happy and align with your values.

Feminists, religious crusaders and “alpha male” influencers have turned the tide in the decades-old battle over adult content.

Compared to farmers, foragers were more egalitarian and had more communal property, food-sharing, and child-rearing.

A leading conservative thinker on populism’s rise on the right.

Donald Trump brings America into Israel’s war on Iran.

Why Avoiding Hard Choices Is Destroying What Makes Us Human